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B.C. regulator says 'overwhelming' number of doctors being asked for criminal record fingerprint checks

VANCOUVER—B.C.’s regulator for physicians and surgeons is concerned that more than 1,200 doctors in the province have been required to provide fingerprints as a result of compulsory criminal record checks since the beginning of 2017, documents show.

The number of requests has a civil liberties advocate suggesting the province is over-regulating its doctors. According to the documents, British Columbia’s 13,353 doctors were required to undergo 8,183 criminal record checks since 2017, with 1,236 of them having to provide fingerprints because their personal information had similarities to that of sex offenders.

A doctor who intends to work with unsupervised access to children or adults under care must undergo a criminal record check, according to Canada’s Criminal Records Act. This is to determine whether they have committed crimes, including sexual offences, violent offences, trafficking, theft, fraud or breach of trust.

In performing the checks, the RCMP, which oversees the process, will request fingerprints from any doctor whose name and date of birth are both similar to those of a known sex offender, and from any doctor who shares an exact date of birth and gender with a sex offender.

“This is not an inference that the individual has been convicted of an offence, but rather to obtain a positive identification,” RCMP Sgt. Marie Damian told The Star.

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In a brief memo in January for its board of directors, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C., said the number of fingerprint requests has become “overwhelming.”

Micheal Vonn, policy director with the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, said her organization has been approached by numerous people, particularly in the health sector, complaining that the fingerprinting process casts too wide a net.

She believes the government should release information to demonstrate how often the fingerprint process actually achieves its objective: identifying sex offenders who may have changed their names or are trying to disguise themselves as other people.

“We want to see the government demonstrate what they’re doing is a proportional and rational response,” Vonn said. “The whole notion of having to require a biometric to get your criminal or police records has been, in our view, a very overbroad set of criteria.”

Neither the government nor the college would explain how many doctors were actually found to match the identity of any convicted sex offenders. The B.C. government said the only time information on positive flags for sex offenders is released is with the consent of the person involved. The college did not provide anyone for an interview.

Doctors of BC, an association of 14,000 physicians, residents and medical students in the province, said its main concern is ensuring the safety of vulnerable populations and patients.

“If it is a legal requirement of the RCMP that doctors with a similar gender/birth date to a convicted sex offender be fingerprinted to rule them out — then doctors must comply,” Dr. Eric Cadesky, the association’s president, said in a statement.

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“It’s important to know that the request has nothing to do with individual doctors’ conduct; it has to do with the offenders who often change their names and identities. The number of doctors who have been flagged simply reflects a name similarity, and is part of a legal process, albeit a process not without its flaws, that maintains doctors’ credibility with the public and proves they are above all suspicion.”

In a letter to registrants earlier this year, Dr. Heidi Oetter, the college’s registrar and CEO, said anyone not complying with required fingerprinting could be subject to an inquiry.

“The college would very much prefer to avoid taking action against a registrant for failure to comply with this statutory provision,” Oetter wrote, adding that “hundreds of physicians” promptly comply with the requirement each year.

Vonn said many of those now being asked to provide fingerprints have undergone numerous criminal record checks over the course of years due to the nature of their jobs.

“Some of these health professionals, people working in the vulnerable sector, have been proving they are themselves for the past 30 years,” she said. “The notion they are somebody else in disguise at this point is absurd.”

Michael Mui is a Vancouver-based investigative reporter. Follow him on Twitter: @mui24hours

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